Settling Down
by ForTheGloryOfSparta
Summary: After all they went through, it isn't so easy to stop. Percy is having a hard time adjusting to normal life, so he takes some time talk to Annabeth about it. One-shot.


**I don't know where this came from, I was just having writer's block for my other story, so I figured I would try writing something else. This came out. I don't even know that I like it. It is kind of pointless, but I would be interested in hearing what you thought about it.**

Percy was tired. It was the first day after the end of school, so he expected to be exhausted by the end of the day. He didn't expect to be exhausted like this. When he got home, he said hello to his mom, grabbed an apple and went straight to his room without another word. He closed the door behind him. He lie on his back, staring at the ceiling, hoping no one would disturb him. Percy didn't feel like dealing with anyone right now. Not his lovely mother, not his incredible friend Grover, not his beautiful and smart girlfriend Annabeth, and _certainly_ not any of his friends from school.

For a long while, or maybe not so long, it was hard to keep track of time, his hopes held. No one came in. No one even knocked. Percy, knowing his mom was probably worried about him, as he rarely closed his door unless something was wrong, but he appreciated that she didn't bother him for some time. When a knock on his door finally did come, he was not given time to respond before it opened. It was Annabeth. His mom must have been more worried than he thought, if she called Annabeth in.

"Hey Seaweed Brain," she whispered gently, "I heard you were feeling kind of down today. What's up?"

He turned his head to look at her from his spot on the bed. He felt sluggish still. Though his mind was reeling, his body was vehemently protesting any movement. Pushing past the heavy feeling of his jaw, he managed to respond, "Don't worry about it. It is no big deal, really. I am simply adjusting to going to school again."

It was the first time he had been back to school since he was kidnapped by Hera, so it wasn't totally a lie. Unfortunately for him, Annabeth knew him well enough to know it wasn't the whole truth either. The look she gave him said _that_ loudly enough.

Percy sighed and sat up. He knew that he wasn't getting out of this one now that she knew there was something bothering him. She came to sit on the bed next to him. Percy watched her as she walked, noticing the way her blond curls bounced a bit with each step, and the way her piercing grey eyes didn't leave his as she sat down. Yeah, he thought, he was not getting out of this one.

Once she sat down, Percy didn't start talking right away. Annabeth didn't say anything either. She sat and looked at him patiently, waiting for him to begin.

He took a deep breath in, wondering how to start. "Remember Luke?" He asked her. Annabeth stiffened a little bit. Wherever she thought this conversation was going to go, that was not it.

"Of course I remember him, what kind of question is that?" she murmured cautiously, wondering where he was headed.

"Right," Percy responded, feeling a little lost. He had a hard time explaining how he was feeling on a normal basis, and this wasn't normal. This was the only way he could think of to tell her what was going on inside his mind. _Starting from the beginning._

"Well," he continued, "when we were twelve, and we got back from the quest with the bolt, Luke tried to poison me with the pit scorpion, remember?" Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Well, before that, we talked about quests and he asked me if I missed it. At first I said no, but he knew right away that I was lying. And I was. Being on a quest was dangerous and terrifying and hard, but it was... interesting, and I had you and Grover or someone else. You get back and just nothing happens. Ever."

Annabeth looked horribly confused, "I don't see where this is going, Percy."

"I am getting there. Just prefacing my thoughts," he responded.

Annabeth nodded, realizing that perhaps this problem was deeper than she thought. When she first heard that he was acting off after the first day of school, she was expecting something simple, something easily fixed with a pep talk or something of the sort. If he decided to go all the way back to Luke, she doubted that would be the case.

After a pause, Percy continued, "Right, so anyway, Luke and I had this chat and then he tried to kill me, but that is besides the point. After that, I went home and went to school for the year and nothing happened until the Lastrigonians came to school. We went on another quest that summer, got into a whole bunch of new danger involving sorceresses and sirens and cyclopes and Grover in a wedding dress. And you would think that I would hate to be in all this danger again, but in a way it felt good. It felt great, in fact. I was doing something worthwhile. I was literally saving the world. Isn't that what every kid dreams of? We all think that we are all too short lived to do something that would actually matter. But here I was, this little scrawny middle schooler, the one who always got picked on, and I was saving the world.

"And the feeling continued. I mean, quests sucked sometimes. That winter, you got kidnapped and I was worried out of my mind. We held the sky which hurt like hell. But at the same time, I was doing something that was capital-G Great. Then the Labyrinth, which was our hardest quest yet, and then the next summer was the war. During the war, I was scared out of my mind, I don't think "being the hero" ever even crossed my mind. I just wanted to get out alive. Afterwards though, all I could think about was that _we did it_."

He paused for a second. He thought about how to continue. In his silence, Annabeth thought about what he had said. She still didn't know quite where he was going with all this. She was surprised to hear some of what he said. She didn't realize Percy thought about all of this. Additionally, it didn't escape Annabeth's notice that he said "we," not "I." Even after he literally saved the world, he was still humble. That amazed her, especially as someone who was particularly prideful.

He sighed, apparently deciding what to say, "Next I was kidnapped by Hera, pushed into another quest. I found you again, we made it to Rome, fell into Tartarus, made it to the Doors, fought some giants, managed to stop a war between armed Greeks and armed Romans, and that was the end.

"Now, here is where today's problem comes in. For the past _five years_, everything has been life or death. If we win, we save the world. If we lose, the world crumbles at our feet. We and all of humanity are obliterated. So tell me, my dear Wise Girl, how am I supposed to go back. How am I supposed to get up everyday and go to school like any other seventeen year old kid and worry about sports events and my English grade and how to ask my girlfriend to prom. How am I supposed to deal with teenage guys who's biggest worry is what their mom is going to think about their report card. I don't know how to be that person, Annabeth." He stopped there. Annabeth didn't know what to say at first. She understood his trouble. After so much going on all the time, it was hard to watch your entire life come to a screeching halt as all the intensity evaporates in a heartbeat.

He sighed, "Look, don't get me wrong, it is great not to be in mortal danger. I would never _wish _for another war. Two was more than enough for me. And as it is, I am stuck wondering if the nightmares will ever stop. I am stuck wondering if there will ever be a day where I don't clutch the end of the dinner table as my mom and Paul patiently wait for the flashback to end. But I don't know what to do with myself, Annabeth. I just... I just don't know."

She scooted closer to him. He was sitting on the edge of his bed now, his forearms on his thighs, hands clasped in front of him, his head hanging down towards his chest. She mimicked his position, leaning forward a little father so that she was looking into his face when he looked up. She didn't say anything, she just sat there with him, the side of her body pressed up against the side of his.

His eyes met hers, and an understanding seemed to pass between them. They had made it through so much together, this was just one more thing. It seems bad now, it is okay to not feel one hundred percent peachy. But you know what? This too shall pass. There was nothing she could say that would make him feel better now. So she didn't say anything. In the end, lending him her company was the best thing she could do for him. Just like it always has been.

Just saying everything he was thinking out loud helped Percy. The next few days, he continued to go to school, and a few months later he joined the swim team. He fell into a routine, and though it felt weird at first, he did get used to it. He got used to lower stakes and shallower worries. In the years that followed, it was always a breath of fresh air to return to camp every once in a while, but he got used to the normalcy.

Several years later, when he got an IM from camp that his fifteen year old son had made it to camp for the first time safely, he didn't envy him like he thought he would. He just prepared himself for the barrage of "_Why didn't you tell me"_s and "_Oh my gods that place is so cool_"s that were sure to accompany the boy's return. _You are going to have the time of your life_, he would tell him, _but gods be with you when you try to settle down after._

**Review if you have a moment**


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